


The Elephant in the Room

by just_ann_now



Category: Swordspoint Series - Ellen Kushner
Genre: M/M, Yuletide Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-20
Updated: 2011-12-20
Packaged: 2017-10-27 15:00:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/297093
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/just_ann_now/pseuds/just_ann_now
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's not as if Richard and Alec are particularly good at talking things out anyway. And now something so huge and frightening is looming over them that it just cries out to be ignored.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Elephant in the Room

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Snow](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Snow/gifts).



“Why do you keep rubbing your eyes like that?” Alec demanded over breakfast one morning.

“ I keep thinking there’s something in my eye - there’s a blurry spot; I can’t seem to get rid of it.”

“Well, stop rubbing it. It’s annoying.”

“Certainly, _my lord_ ,” Richard replied in his maddening, sarcastic way. Alec threw a sweet roll at him; rather than batting it back, as he usually did, Richard ducked, and the sweet roll landed under the sideboard.

“Sorry,” Richard said.

“Not to worry; that’s what we have servants for.” Alec replied. Richard laughed and poured himself another cup of chocolate.

~*~

“Alec, we need to talk.” Richard whispered one night into the darkness.

"Talk, then," Alec replied, curling into Richard like a cat. "I like it when you talk."

"I...I can't see."

"Of course you can't, it's nighttime. All the candles and lamps are out. Having trouble finding the chamber pot, are you? Should we start having a night-light? "

Richard laughed wryly. "No, it's not that. It's .... _I can't see._ It’s like there’s a great gaping black hole there, right in the middle of my eye. I can see around the edges, but -”

"How long has this been going on? Have you seen a physician?"

"Months now, and you know damn well I haven't. I don't want...I don't want word of this to get around. It could be dangerous."

"We'll get Berryman to come by, he's the best. Perhaps you just need some rest."

Richard snorted. "What else do I do lately but rest?"

~*~

But Berryman had no answers for them. "It happens, sometimes, to older people; you're the youngest I've ever seen with this problem. Stay out of bright sunlight, rest in a dark room. There's an old wives' tale about eating carrots, but I don't credit it. Unless you like carrots, then eat all you want, it probably wouldn't do any harm. Let me know if it gets any worse." As if they _would._

After that, Alec's salon became full of astrologers, phrenologists, faith healers, and authors of every manner of arcane work about folk remedies. He was careful to make it look as though it were a passing fad of his, one of many obscure interests. The parties became increasingly bizarre (and invitations much sought out by certain residents of the Hill), but even Alec was ready to draw the line when seances began to be suggested.

"I can't imagine that calling for the spirit of the late Duchess Diane would make anything better; it could certainly make things a whole lot worse. And as for her husband? He was mad as a spring rabbit, that's why they locked him in the attic until he died."

"Can't you just let it go, Alec?" Richard finally lashed out. "I'm really tired of all this foolishness. Rest in a dark room sounds heavenly after all these idiots and their drivel. And I'm _not_ going to seven chapels to light seven hundred red votive candles, so don't even suggest it."

"A chapel would fall down if I ever entered it," Alec said. He drew Richard down to sit on the bed next to him, enfolding Richard's hands in his. "What are we going to do?"

"Let's not do anything for now. Let's just...not." And for several months, that's what they did. Nothing.

~*~

“Alec, I've been thinking, " Richard said. It was mid-morning, and their bodies were still tangled together in the wide bed. The footman didn’t even bother to try to come in any more, just left the tray with the chocolate and rolls and jam on the table outside. "I'm thinking I should probably leave."

"What, do you have an appointment? Are you getting your hair trimmed, or a manicure? My valet could do that. We wouldn't even need to get out of bed."

This time, Richard didn't smile. "You are not listening to me. _I need to leave._ The City. I can't stay here any longer, not with things as they are."

"As they are how? Have people been annoying you? You used to kill them when they did that."

"Well, I haven't lately, have I? Have you even noticed? I don't fight any more because I can't see, and because I can't see, I can't stay. It’s not safe."

"But I could keep you safe here. I could -"

"Do what? Keep me imprisoned in your household, like a bird in a cage? Hire a bodyguard for me? Who?"

"Riverside. We'll move to Riverside House. We'll stay there permanently; just open up this place when I have to entertain. Well, entertain people who would rather be caught with their breeches down, dipping in their neighbor's honey jar, than set foot in Riverside."

"Are you mad? Riverside would be even worse. I'd be much easier to kill there."

"Who's trying to kill you? I can't let anyone do that. It would be bad for my reputation."

At that, Richard did snort with wry laughter."Everyone's trying to kill me, Alec, to get back at me for killing their kinsmen, or their friends, or anyone they ever talked to. Don't you understand?  I can't see properly, I can't protect myself, and I certainly can't protect you."

"When was the last time I needed protecting?"

"Probably the last time you opened your mouth."

“Then I’ll learn to keep it shut. Except when I’m -" and his mouth closed over Richard’s.

~*~

"I don't want you to go."

Richard sighed. "Alec, you must understand. I can't stay. There's no life for me here any more."

"No life for you here. I don't count, then, as a part of your life? You're bored of me, of what we have together?"

"Never bored with you, Alec. But what am I? Your ornament, your lapdog? Your parties bore me, these shallow, mindless people, but not you. Even before - " his voice faltered, just for a moment. "Even before I began to lose my eyesight, what was there for me? The jobs dried up once you became Duke; I suppose no one wanted to take a chance of offending the most powerful man in the City by breaking his toy. I am a swordsman, if I am anything, but, here, now, I am nothing.

"Not nothing. Not ever nothing. Don't say that, don't ever even think it, Richard, Richard - " He wrestled Richard down onto the bed. Their breathing became harsh, raspy.  
    


~*~

"I take it you're not coming with me?"

"Where are you going?"

"Wherever I end up going when I leave the City. You're _not_ coming, are you, Alec?"

Alec suddenly became very busy rearranging the items on his desk. "It would be difficult for me to look after my interests if I were away from the city. No one can annoy the other members of the Council quite the way I do. And I have a number of investments, irons in the fire, that sort of thing. As efficient as my secretaries are, they can't possibly - "

"I understand. I understand completely. I just wanted to be sure, before I started making my plans."

~*~

"Where are you going?"

"I don't know, really. The country? I could go to back the Trevelyan place, I suppose, where I grew up. I don't know that anyone is living in my mother's cottage."

"Don't be ridiculous. You know that place would have been snatched up before she was cold in the ground. I can send you off to one of the Tremontaine estates..."

"No, not anything with the Tremontaine name."

"You don't want to be associated with me any more?"

"You fool." Richard brushed his fingertips over Alec's lips, traced the contours of his cheekbones, his eyelids. "A blind swordsman, at a Tremontaine property? Not much problem guessing who that is."

"I have another estate, held in my own right, not Tremontaine’s," Alec said softly. "It's called Highcombe. A pretty little place, if I remember correctly. Well, a great old drafty house, but smaller than any of my other great old drafty houses. More of a lodge than an estate; they send down blackberries and trout and wild game. There are bees, too.  It's Highcombe that keeps me supplied with good beeswax candles and even honey, sometimes... "

"Honey. It sounds a sweet place."

"It is, indeed."

~*~

It _was_ a sweet place, rich with the droning of bees and the blackbird's song and the pleasant burbling of the stream. Richard could smell honeysuckle and tansy, feel the sun warm on his skin and the breeze lifting his hair. He would hear anyone coming long before they could touch him. It was very nearly perfect.

Except that Alec was not there.


End file.
